Kevin Nisbet goal a positive for Lions but head coach Edwards not getting ‘carried away’ by second-half scoreline

Joe Edwards admitted Kevin Nisbet’s goal was one of the positives to come out of Millwall’s 3-1 defeat at Ipswich Town – but added it did very little to take any edge off his disappointment.

The Lions head coach was critical of his team’s performance as they suffered a second successive Championship reverse.

But Nisbet did come on in the second period to hook in Ryan Longman’s cross, ending a barren run of nine matches for the Scotland international.

There was no doubt that Ipswich eased off the gas after taking a 3-0 lead inside the opening 40 minutes with Conor Chaplin, Wes Burn and Nathan Broadhead – all key players – taken off with more than 20 minutes remaining.

Asked if the second-half display gave him anything to take away from his third match at the Lions helm, Edwards responded: “Very slightly. For someone like Kevin Nisbet to come on – I’m sure he’s been desperate for a chance to start. So when a striker comes on and gets a goal, hopefully that will give him some belief.

“In terms of the attitude and the body language, that kind of stuff, that began to really disappoint me after their first goal and the first half there was probably a slight improvement in that, in the second half.

“Then we make some changes to keep the energy up. People like Billy Mitchell come on. I’ve been wanting to see more of Billy.

“But, at the same time, I’m not going to get too carried away with the scoreline of the second half because we know what a team is able to do when they get 3-0 ahead. They are able to approach the game differently themselves.

“We need to focus on what that first half was and how we can avoid that happening again.”